In such apparatus a driven, endless conveyor belt is provided, which conveys food from a feeding point or location, over a surface which is inclined obliquely downwardly in the conveying direction to a food depositing point or location, whence the food is delivered to the packing machine by gravity.
Such food inserting apparatus which is described in DE-A-19 06 366, comprises a ramp-like oblique surface which is inclined obliquely downwardly towards the depositing point or location. The sliced food, for example slices of continental sausage, cheese and the like, is deposited on the ramp-like surface which is formed by an endless rotary conveyor belt. When the conveyor belt is switched on, the food is transported forwardly, following said inclined surface, and is finally stopped at the depositing point or location.
Below the food depositing point or location, is a deep drawing packing sheet formed with a dish-like receptacle below the apparatus. Dish-like packs are spaced from one another in rows and columns within the area of a sheet and form a second conveyor belt, arranged below the depositing point or location of the first mentioned conveyor belt, on a pack transporter of the packing machine.
The food depositing end of the conveyor belt can be moved by means of a slide which is movable forwardly and rearwardly and a bypass roller maintains the belt at a constant tension.
However, the apparatus is relatively expensive to construct in the region of the depositing end of the conveyor belt. When the slide is drawn back, the front part of the conveyor belt is abutted against a slide plate by means of a direction changing roller, and the front part of the conveyor belt is additionally mounted on a swivel bearing of the slide. Means must be provided for changing the angle of inclination of the food transporting plane when the sliced food is deposited, the discharge end of the conveyor belt being arranged to be both swivelled, and raised and lowered vertically, with the risk of the accuracy with which the food is inserted in a packaging unit, being impaired. Also, the food must be inserted into the packaging machine with the conveyor belt still running, but at the same time the discharge end of the conveyor belt is swivelled vertically, where it is further moved horizontally backwards by the slide. Coordination problems thus arise in respect of the insertion of the food so that such insertion may be inaccurate.
A further such food insertion apparatus is described in DE-A-25 16 583, in which the discharge end of the conveyor belt is drawn back by means of a slide during the inserting operation, so that food can be deposited in sequence. Since said discharge end is moved with the conveyor belt still running, problems arise in achieving highly accurate insertion of the food. Further, the depositing point or location is not in itself adjustable, so that the insertion of the food is not accurate to the nearest millimetre particularly with a continuously moving conveyor belt.